Chapter 51 Jingyuan and Southern Suburbs

The top of the mountain can already be seen. Surrounded by clouds and mist, the blurry mountain stands in the distance.

The air here is very fresh. Along the way to Jingyuan, I saw some local restaurants with signs saying "live eels" and "freshly killed local chickens". Just looking from the outside, even the dining tables were put away. Inside the locked iron windows,

It was empty, with the old words "Empty Shop for Rent/Sale" posted on the inner glass.

Before the disaster, these restaurants had closed down because there had been no tourists for a long time.

Along the way, he didn't even see a single zombie. Instead, he found onions, white radish roots, and even some unknown wild flowers in the unattended vegetable fields.

He had never seen flowers in the city, and if he thought about it, he had never seen even an insect, not even a fly.

I can't help but think of a question, if insects such as bees and butterflies are infected by mold and become extinct, how do these wild flowers pollinate?

Where there are no insects, there should only be plants that can self-pollinate or reproduce themselves with rhizomes.

This was the case near the city center of Zhoushan City. With his keen senses, he didn't notice the movement of insects at all when he was walking through the city center. The plants he saw were only trees and messy grass with no flowers.

But in the southern suburbs, there are actually flowers. Doesn't it mean that the ecological circle here is still maintained at a relatively normal level?

Jingyuan braced himself to search for small insects, and found a few ants in the cracks in the soil. They looked normal and were looking for food.

Jingyuan did not disturb them, found a piece of land, took out his eggplant knife and used it as a shovel, and dug up the mud.

He dug a small hole, loosened the mud, and found a wriggling earthworm in the mud!

Burying the earthworms back again, he continued to move forward, paying special attention to the small movements along the way, such as spiders building webs, buzzing flies, and moths floating by. He discovered many, many small lives.

He made a bold assumption that most of the molds were concentrated in the center of the city. The further you went to the outskirts of the city, the smaller their number would be and the smaller their impact on the environment and organisms would be.

This means that he might be able to catch fish in the river, and if he could find creatures like chickens, ducks and sheep, he could start a breeding industry, wouldn't it be great?

More importantly, there may be living people and survivors in the southern suburbs.

The natural conditions here are very superior. If there are survivors, they don't have to worry about food. They may have established a small civilized society!

Jingyuan was happy about the existence of this possibility, but soon his heart became cold as if cold water had been poured on him.

After all, he is not a human being now. Who knows what attitude the survivors will have towards him after coming into contact with him.

In a world where the rule of law and order no longer exist, it is probably difficult for a unique existence like him to be accepted.

He thought that if he wanted to contact the survivors, he would have to disguise his identity. At most, he could make some simple transactions with them, and he must never think of integrating with them.

However, it is still a bit far-fetched to think about this. Whether survivors will exist or not is not yet certain.

He began to explore freely in the southern suburbs, gradually entering areas with more buildings.

There were tourist apartments and several-storey rural B&Bs, and he could smell the unique smell of zombies.

There are no living people in this place, but there are scattered zombies.

Throughout the afternoon, he rode his bicycle and wandered around the southern suburbs. This place was not big, and one afternoon was enough for him to complete a full circle along the road.

Of course he didn't go up the mountain, he only explored around the foot of the mountain, the tourist reception center, the high-speed rail station, the bus station, the residential area, the farmer's market, and the villa area.

Except for those corner farmhouses, he took a tour of all these places, but did not see a single living person. Instead, he found three places where larger groups of zombies gathered - the villa area, a B&B and

A farmhouse with farmland nearby.

It seemed that survivors really built a base here a few years ago. He saw some traces of artificial activities. For example, they modified the buildings, sealed the doors and windows with wooden boards, and made some rattan-like structures out of bamboo.

Protective equipment.

But without exception, these bases had all fallen. When he came nearby, he could only feel the unconscious groans of zombies, and there was a strong rotten smell in the air, without any trace of life.

He placed Xiaobai far away and entered the three former survivor bases to explore alone. The zombies regarded him as nothing, so he didn't need to worry.

He found several fairy tale books, several radios, and some rotten and moldy vegetables in the room. Some of the zombies were wearing bamboo armor. From their appearance, it could be inferred that they were all young and middle-aged males when they were alive.

After the disaster broke out, the survivors tried hard to survive, but they failed and no one survived.

Or maybe the living people have left the southern suburbs. They think this place is not safe enough and the influence of mold still exists, so they are heading further into the mountains and old forests. They may also be looking for official asylum and the military.

Step by step, hoping to be rescued by a large force.

What made Jingyuan a little sad was that he found a diary, a diary written by a child.

"I want to go back to school." This is the last sentence in the diary.

Next to the diary, he picked up a spinning top cut out of wood. In the window of the B&B that was used as a base, he saw some paper cuts and a crooked door couplet written by children on the door.

It seems that the survivors once lived a peaceful life. After all, this is a rural area with a strong local flavor. The neighbors have grown up watching each other. Unlike in the city, where the doors are unfamiliar to each other.

They supported each other in their predicament. The survivors built a base. The young and middle-aged men took up arms and formed a garrison. They once celebrated the New Year together with high hopes, but what they received was like this.

A powerless ending.

Jingyuan found two barrels of gasoline at the base of the farmhouse, as well as an agricultural three-wheeler used for transporting goods. Although the three-wheeler was rusty, the engine was still running and started with a stumbling motion.

Jingyuan moved the gasoline barrel to the cargo box of the agricultural tricycle, and then drove the tricycle to the main road.

In the evening, he spent some time pouring half a barrel of gasoline around the farmhouse and lit a fire.

The flames burned away the putrid smell in the air, and the charred human figures fell one by one in the flames, losing all movement. Jingyuan hugged Xiaobai and sat on the tricycle. Xiaobai's hair was illuminated by the fire and turned red.

He waited for the fire to go out for two hours.

Under the starry sky at night, the red-hot coals emitted black smoke, crackled, and with a loud bang, the three-story farmhouse collapsed.

He remained silent, moved his bicycle onto the tricycle, and drove the tricycle forward alone on the empty road.

The engine rumbled, and the car lights shone a faint beam of light. It seemed that there was something wrong with the circuit, flickering on and off.

On the vast dark plain, this agricultural three-wheeler flickered like a lonely firefly.

Jingyuan had already found a place to stay tonight. He thought he would sleep on that wooden bed. At least when he woke up, he would be able to see the sun illuminating the earth and not feel too dark or cold.
Chapter completed!